Tiana
|home = United Realms Her apartment Her palace Resistance camp |occupation=Food truck owner Worker at Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack |species = Human |gender = Female |haircolor = Black |eyecolor = Dark brown |firstappearance = Hyperion Heights |latestappearance = Leaving Storybrooke |portrayedby = Mekia Cox }} Queen Tiana, currently known as Sabine, is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. She débuts in the first episode of the seventh season and is portrayed by starring cast member Mekia Cox. Tiana is based on the Princess from the fairytale "The Frog Prince", and the character of the same name from the Disney film The Princess and the Frog. History As the leader of the Resistance meant to fight against Lady Tremaine's tyranny, Tiana attends the royal ball to keep watch on the prince. She is approached by a servant with a platter of frog legs; however, she declines to sample any. Later, Tiana witnesses Cinderella wield a sword to defend herself against the royal guards, who are attempting to apprehend her for supposedly killing the prince. After seeing Cinderella flee uncaptured, Tiana leaves the ball to track her down in the forest, where she takes out a guard to protect her. She introduces herself and offers Cinderella a place in the Resistance due to her sword fighting skills, but the latter expresses no interest in her cause. Tiana reveals the prince worked with Lady Tremaine to have her father killed, and that Tremaine was responsible for taking away Cinderella's old life, but now she has the chance to help others before Tremaine takes theirs too. Cinderella agrees and then tells Tiana to hop onto Henry's motorcycle with her. A puzzled Tiana then watches as Cinderella removes one of her glass slippers and tosses it into the grass, to which Cinderella informs her that it's a sign for a friend so he knows how to find her. At the Resistance encampment, Tiana brings one of the members, Jeremiah, to Cinderella so he can give her a pair of boots he made for her. When Cinderella asks about when they are going against Tremaine, Tiana briefs her about her stepmother currently transporting magic and weapons from the king's vault to her manor before showing her a scroll drawing of an intricate box that is currently in Tremaine's possession. She inquires whether Cinderella knows what the box is, but the latter denies it despite knowing it is a coffin used to house her deceased stepsister's body. Just then, Henry arrives with his mother Regina and ally Captain Hook to aid in their cause. When Regina mentions they would have reached Cinderella sooner if she hadn't needed to tweak her locator spell, Tiana asks if she has magic, which Regina confirms this, allowing Tiana some assurance that they have a chance of defeating Tremaine after all. Later, Tiana goes over the plans of how they will storm Tremaine's manor, with two groups of Resistance members going in from both sides. While Henry and Regina decide to go with Cinderella, who will be leading one of the groups, Hook opts to join up with Tiana in the other group. The next morning, Tiana passes some weapons to a Resistance member and then mentions to Hook, Henry, and Regina that they need to head out soon. Cinderella shows up, telling them that they can't storm Tremaine's manor as it is a trap. Tiana is curious about how she knows, however, Cinderella hesitates, not wanting to say that she went to confront Tremaine on her own, so Regina says she used her magic mirror to see inside it. Tiana believes Regina's story and then calls off the plan by telling everyone to pack up. After Henry and Cinderella return from New Wonderland, Tiana informs them that a man has arrived and claims he knows Henry. She and Cinderella watch as the man and Henry have a tense confrontation before both men drop the act and hug each other as old friends reunited. When Henry and Cinderella's daughter Lucy is born, Tiana congratulates Henry and notes that his daughter looks strong. Drizella arrives to forewarn the heroes about a Dark Curse she will cast on the child's eighth birthday, to which Tiana and her allies take out their weapons to arm themselves. Luckily, the heroes already prepared a trap for Drizella, who turns into a statue because of blood provided by Lady Tremaine. On the day of her coronation, Tiana is nervous as she receives help from Ella and Regina in the dressing room. Dr. Facilier arrives with news of a threat to her kingdom that she must see to, and as proof of his claims, he directs her into going to the Fairy Docks near the southern edge of the bayou. Despite the probability that Facilier is lying, Tiana decides to investigate if there is a chance her people's lives are at stake. She goes with Hook and Ella to the location, where they see teeth markings left behind by a massive beast. A lone hunter approaches them with claims that the beast is an alligator, which Tiana is doubtful of. When the man suggests she can go if she is skeptical, she coldly retorts that he should be the one leaving. The man laughs and remarks that her fiery temper is similar to his, but when criticized by Hook for his uncouth manner in speaking to a future Queen, he formally introduces himself as Prince Naveen from the kingdom of Maldonia. After learning the prince has an enchanted spear which can kill the gator, Tiana remains unimpressed but allows Naveen to come along so she can show him what a real hero, such as herself, is like. Into the night, she becomes impatient with Naveen's tracking skills, believing he is getting her and her friends lost, however, Naveen spots drag marks on the ground that imply someone was taken by the beast. Soon, the group finds a wounded man who tells them the gator is hiding in the bog. Tiana sends Hook and Ella to bring the man to a healer while she and Naveen lure out the gator by waiting for it on a rowboat. During this, Naveen questions why she tried to control the hunt earlier, and she tells him of her responsibility to protect her people as their Queen and not knowing who she can truly trust. Tiana believes he wouldn't understand, however, Naveen explains he is not after the gator for glory but because it killed his older brother, whom he intended to rule with, and now being alone is difficult and lonely with no one he can count on. Seeing as she is in a similar dilemma with not knowing who she can trust, Tiana suggests they start an alliance. Naveen agrees to this by taking a swig of his drink, but Tiana sees something of his that resembles one of Dr. Facilier's possessions, making her suspicious of him. As Naveen denies any involvement with Facilier, the gator rocks the boat and sends him into the water. Tiana uses the spear to kill the gator, though Naveen has already been fatally injured by then. As Naveen is dying, Facilier retrieves a necklace from the gator's corpse, revealing this was why he wanted Tiana to hunt down the beast. Tiana demands he revive Naveen since she helped to get his bauble, which Facilier follows through with but he takes away Naveen because the prince now owes him a debt for saving him. Afterward, Tiana goes home, unable to help Naveen, but refocuses her attention on what she can do for her kingdom. Before going out to greet her subjects, she asks her mother, Regina, Hook, Ella, and Henry join her as she can't protect her people on her own and trusts they will help her. Eight years later, Tiana continues ruling her kingdom as Queen. She is present in the castle courtyard for Lucy's eighth birthday, but the party dies down when Gothel and her coven of witches shows up to free Drizella and agrees to help her cast the curse. When Lucy reports that Henry was taken by the witches, Tiana urges Hook, Regina, Cinderella, and Jack to find him while she stays behind to look after Lucy, however, Ella persuades everyone that doing so will only distract them from the curse. Tiana remains in the castle with Lucy as the others, along with Zelena, go to confront Drizella and Gothel at a summoning altar. However, Regina is forced by Drizella to cast the curse in order to save Henry's life, prompting the curse to spread throughout the land. Tiana holds onto Lucy in the castle courtyard as she watches the curse cloud close in on the both of them. }} One morning, Sabine takes too long in the apartment bathroom, causing Jacinda to be late for work at Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack. Later as Sabine is cooking in the kitchen, she sees Jacinda return home after quitting her job due to her overbearing boss Louie. Sabine acknowledges Louie is unfair but that she needed that job to pay her share of the rent. She questions what Victoria, Jacinda's stepmother, will think, considering she was unhappy about letting her have custody of Lucy. Jacinda decides to not tell her stepmother anything and then asks whether Lucy has gotten up yet. Sabine mentions Lucy's bedroom door has been closed all morning, to which Jacinda goes to check up on her daughter, only to find her missing. After Victoria takes custody of Lucy, Sabine does her best to support Jacinda. They learn from Ivy that Victoria has decided to make the tickets to Lucy's ballet recital cost $550.00, fifty dollars more than Jacinda's paycheck. Sabine uses the WorkBunny app to try to find Jacinda a secondary job to earn the extra cash she needs, but Jacinda isn't satisfied with any of the options. Their planning is interrupted when Henry arrives to see Jacinda. After realizing who Henry is, Sabine quickly excuses herself to let the pair talk in private. Later, as Sabine and Jacinda are walking down the streets of Hyperion Heights and are about to give up, Sabine is surprised to see the perfect job listing for them: caterers for the ballet recital. Jacinda and Sabine take the jobs but Jacinda becomes upset when Henry reveals that he's the one who put the job on the app. They go through with the job anyway and Sabine watches as Jacinda and Lucy are reunited, then spots Henry's reaction to the heartfelt reunion. Sabine asks him if he's in love with Jacinda, and as Henry becomes flustered and makes excuses before eventually explaining he's just trying to make up for his mistake for causing Jacinda to lose Lucy to Victoria. To this, Sabine smiles knowingly and remarks that it's at least a start of something. Later, Detectives Weaver and Rogers reveal that Victoria's bracelet was stolen sometime during the recital and Weaver announces their intention to search the caterers, presumably including Sabine; however, the bracelet is nowhere to be found. Hearing Jacinda return home, Sabine comes out to greet her and sees her sitting dejectedly on the couch reading a letter from Lucy. She tries to comfort Jacinda but receives a text from Louie asking where she is, to which she begins leaving for work. After making some of her homemade beignets, Sabine drops by Belfrey Towers to give them to Lucy, who is waiting for Victoria to pick her up for ballet lessons. When Victoria does show up, she casually announces to Sabine that her rental agreement is being raised by 8%, curtly adding that it's a family discount. Sabine is floored by Victoria's cruelty but vows to fight back against her. Coming up with the idea to sell her beignets and earn big money, she invests all of her and Jacinda's accumulated rent money in order to buy the ingredients needed to make the pastries in bulk amounts. Jacinda thinks her plan is too risky and it could all backfire, but Sabine convinces her that they need to take a chance for themselves and Lucy. Taking advantage of the fact that her boss Louie is away at a regional managers' convention, With the creation of an online advertisement, Sabine advertises her beignets online in order to draw customers to Mr. Cluck's. Lucy later suggests stamping the beignet bags with a firefly imprint as an homage to Sabine and how she used to wish on fireflies. Jacinda, excited by how quickly their business is growing, imagines setting up a stand at the farmer's market, however, Sabine dreamily envisions having a food truck with a jazzy and sophisticated atmosphere. The two are pleased by how much they accomplished, but things take a bad turn when a fire breaks out, prompting Sabine to grab a box and hit the fire alarm before following Jacinda out to flee the area. Jacinda is furious at Sabine for persuading her into pursuing this crazy venture with the hopes that their lives could get better when it won't. Sabine hands over the box, which contains ten months of rent money until Jacinda can find a new job, and agrees to move out from their apartment. As Sabine is packing up, Lucy begs her not to go, but Sabine's mind is made up as she believes she has to let go of her failed dreams and accept her stark reality. Lucy insists she is actually running away and that she is meant to stay with her and Jacinda as a family, with Sabine promising Lucy will always have her but that there are things in life even she can't fight against. Later, Jacinda apologizes, having realized that Sabine has been the one to help her be optimistic when life gets her down. Further recognizing that Sabine also needs the same from her, she shows her a food truck which she bought from the impound lot that they can use for their future business. After this reconciliation, Sabine visits Rogers and gifts him a bag of beignets as thanks since he helped Jacinda find the truck. She learns from him that the cause of the fire was arson and the likely suspect is Victoria. With Jacinda unable to regain custody of Lucy, who is now with social services because Victoria is in jail, Sabine suggests getting help from her Nick Branson as he just graduated from law school. Jacinda thinks this will only complicate matters since Jack is not only her ex but also Lucy's biological father, but Sabine insists she has to risk it if she means doing anything and everything to get Lucy back. Sabine later returns home to show Jacinda their new food truck uniforms and sees her roommate dolling herself up for what appears to be a date. Jacinda admits she and Nick were supposed to meet in his office to discuss the custody case but he instead moved the location to his friend's new restaurant. Sabine takes notice that Jacinda is really prettying herself up, and though the latter states she just wants to look presentable enough to convince Nick she can look after Lucy, Sabine suspects she is falling for Nick again. While Jacinda is on her date, Sabine finds Henry working on fixing the food truck engine. She can clearly tell he is competing with Nick for Jacinda's affections and wants to impress her, even though Henry insists he wanted to help with getting the engine going. After Henry turns it on, Sabine marvels at his handiwork, just as Jacinda and Nick walk in together. Sabine then watches uneasily as an uncomfortable Henry tosses Jacinda the truck keys before departing on his own. After Lucy resumes living in the apartment once Nick helps Jacinda regain custody of her, Sabine is pouring herself some coffee as she overhears the girl ask her mom to invite Henry over so they can share the good news with him. Jacinda promises to consider it, and once Lucy leaves the room, Sabine comments on Lucy's persistence with trying to get her and Henry together. Sabine asks if she intends to let the meeting happen, and Jacinda admits she went to the bar looking for Henry but was told he left for a trip with Roni. Later, Sabine answers the door and is shocked to see Victoria, who comes in to formally renounce any custody claims on Lucy and give Jacinda the paperwork for it as proof. As Sabine is working on a to-do list inside her food truck, which now has a new paint job with the name Rollin' Bayou, Rogers follows up with her about the fire at Mr. Cluck's, despite that she was already questioned by Weaver the other day. Sabine tells him about Weaver showing her a discarded object found in the dumpster which he said was used by the arsonist to forcibly open the back door at Mr. Cluck's. When Rogers asks her to describe the object, she instead draws it for him, revealing it is a pointy dagger-shaped weapon and that Weaver not only made her hold it but kept asking if she "felt" anything from it. As Lucy is wheeled into the hospital into intensive care, Sabine reassures Jacinda that her daughter will be fine and she suggests notifying Nick and Henry about what has happened. Jacinda agrees to do just that, and Sabine goes to tell Rogers so he can investigate where Lucy was before she collapsed. Sabine joins Henry and Jacinda in keeping vigil at Lucy's bedside, but when the girl begins waking up, she rushes out of the room to get a nurse. After Victoria's unexpected death, Sabine finds a newspaper by the fence outside her food truck which features an article about the woman's real estate deals. She is in the midst of listening to the first episode of Henry's podcast H-Town when Jacinda and Lucy come visiting. They offer to help with her truck for the upcoming food fair, but Sabine prefers to do it herself, citing that she is a perfectionist, though Jacinda lovingly describes her as a control freak. Sabine instead suggests the mother-daughter pair spend more time together, and she further encourages Jacinda to say yes when Lucy wants to invite Henry over for game night. While Sabine sets up her beignets and gumbo soup, her old cooking classmate Drew arrives to catch up with her. Drew praises her exceptional skills but tells her she can be a bit controlling when it comes to food, and he demonstrates this by trying to dunk one of her beignets in a soup dish, which freaks Sabine out to the point she stops him from ruining his lunch. When Sabine learns Drew is also partaking in the food fair with his own truck, Flamin' Cajun, she samples his beignets to see what she is up against. She finds that the treat is too sugary and tells herself she will "kill him dead", which a police officer overhears after coming to her truck to look over her licenses and permits. After regaining her composure, Sabine shows him her permits, however, the officer states her food safety permit is missing. She explains she mailed in her paperwork but haven't received it back yet, but that she desperately needs to be at the fair. The officer refuses to turn a blind eye and reveals someone gave him an anonymous tip about her missing permit. Suspecting Drew tattled on her, Sabine confronts him, to which he admits his associate, Mr. Samdi, is likely the one who did it as he offered him guaranteed success with his food truck. Sabine is furious, berating Drew for having everything while she has had to work for it only to lose it all in one swipe. To make it up to her, Drew gives her his food safety permit so she can continue running her truck. He agrees with her earlier assessment of him getting everything handed to him and reveals he actually flunked out of cooking school instead of dropping out. Drew admits he was not good at cooking and he would rather help her succeed instead. As customers line up at Rollin' Bayou, Sabine serves the officer, who previously declined her food because he was on a diet, a bag of beignets and a bowl of gumbo soup. Later that night, Drew helps dump the garbage, during which Samdi approaches him to insist he continue deceiving Sabine. When Sabine comes to drop off the last garbage bag, she asks if he was talking to someone, which Drew plays off by saying he was just congratulating himself. As Lucy works to purposely keep Henry and her mom apart, due to her knowledge that Henry will die if they share true love's kiss and break the curse, Jacinda has a night out with Sabine at a restaurant. Jacinda goes next door to Flynn's Barcade while Sabine stays at the restaurant to wait for their reserved seats. After Sabine texts her about the seats being ready, Jacinda leaves to go meet her. To help out Rogers, Sabine agrees to hire Tilly as a worker in the food truck. She gives Rogers his favorite order in a bag after he drops off Tilly, whom she decides can work odd days since Drew currently works even days. Tilly tries her hand at making and frying beignets, but one of them is in the shape of a heart organ rather than the usual triangular shape. Sabine then suggests she can work out front and sell the beignets to customers instead. As Tilly goes out, Jacinda comes in as Sabine figures out from her expression that she is having boy troubles. Jacinda tells her about Henry's job offer in New York and how she encouraged him to do what is best for his career, however, Sabine believes Henry only told her so she could persuade him not to go and insists she call him. In the evening, Rogers comes by again, noticing that Sabine is frying up the beignets instead of Tilly. Sabine happily reports that Tilly has a knack for selling the beignets after coming up with the idea to hand out free samples in order to get more customers to buy them. As Tilly finishes up her shift, she shares with Sabine and Rogers that people know her name now from talking to her, unlike the past when she stole food and went unseen by them. Sabine continues operating the food truck as Tilly thanks her for the job opportunity before walking off with Rogers. During a morning at the apartment, Sabine sees Jacinda spacing out and continually beating egg yolks in a bowl as pancakes simmer in a pan. She then scoops up the pancakes onto a plate before they burn, which Jacinda thanks her for as she was distracted thinking about Henry because he hasn't texted her since his departure to New York. However, Jacinda suddenly gets a text from him about the interview going well, making her worried this means he really will leave Hyperion Heights to take the job. Sabine assures her that a good interview doesn't guarantee anything and encourages her to reply back to Henry. She then leaves for work and says goodbye to Lucy on her way out. As Sabine works with Drew inside the food truck, she comments about Tilly's ability to appeal to their customers by selling the beignets but Drew himself has a talent for frying them. Drew notices they are out of beignet batter, though Sabine pulls out another bag, noting that she made extra in case. When Sabine hands it to him, she and Drew trade a smile with each other before she leaves to go fetch her "secret ingredient" to add to the batter. While she is gone, Samdi intimidates Drew, who is awake, into fulfilling the debt he still owes him. Sabine later goes home for the night but Drew stays at the food truck, where he makes a beignet and gives it to Samdi. Samdi, having specifically wanted a beignet from Drew because Sabine trusted him enough to teach him how to make them, taps some of the beignet's powdered sugar onto a voodoo doll, seemingly imbuing it with magic. That evening, Sabine is at home with Jacinda and Lucy when Henry returns after Rogers rescued him from Nick's captivity. Sabine heads to the kitchen to make him a cup of hot cocoa, and as she passes him, she wryly remarks on the fact he is likely not going to make that interview in New York. After Drew bails on work, Sabine texts Jacinda to ask if she can come in and help her man the fryers in the food truck. When Henry and Jacinda finally become a couple and decide to go with Lucy to Bainbridge Island, Jacinda and Lucy begin packing. Sabine gives them a bag to use, commenting on how many clothes they're packing and how bad the weather is, and complains that she still hasn't heard back from Drew. Lucy finds a tarot card belonging to Mr. Samdi in the bag and asks if Drew once used the bag before, and when Sabine confirms this, Lucy suggests that Sabine should ask Samdi about where Drew is. Jacinda joins her as they head to Samdi's office to confront him. He willingly tells Sabine to look in his closet, where she finds Drew tied up; however, he then orders both Sabine and Jacinda to get in the closet with Drew. When Sabine attempts to protest against this, he uses a voodoo doll to prick her in the knee and threaten her, to which Jacinda complies with Samdi by pulling her into the closet. }} Overcome with the combined memories of Sabine and Tiana, Sabine retreats to her apartment to bake beignets, remembering that baking always cleared Sabine's mind. Drew arrives and reminds her that, as queen, she should have someone baking for her, but Sabine explains that she doesn't feel like a queen by hiding from her people. Drew cheers her up with the reminder of how she risked her life to protect him. Later, Tilly and Margot request Sabine's help when Tilly senses that her father, Henry, Roni, and Weaver are in danger in the Wish Realm, but Sabine states she doesn't have anything that can help them. With some encouragement from Tilly, Margot, and Drew, she calls the people of Hyperion Heights to meet at the Fremont Troll to ask them for help. However, as she begins to speak, she is ignored by the crowd until Drew shouts for them to pay attention. She begs them to remember anything; Silver Slippers, a magic hat, or a bean; that they may have had before the curse but have forgotten about, telling the crowd that their people and their queen need their help. As Tilly and Margot congratulate her, they are approached by Remy who reveals that, prior to the casting of the curse, he found a magic bean while gathering ingredients for a recipe and offers it to them. As Tilly and Margot prepare to leave, Sabine decides to remain behind to help her people through the transition of remembering their past lives, but allows them to use the Rollin' Bayou. She and Drew see them off, where Tilly and Margot reveal that they plan to stop somewhere else to get some help before they head to the Wish Realm. }} }} Trivia Character Notes= Etymology *The name "Sabine" is a reference to the Sabine River, a waterway in the U.S. states of Texas and Louisiana. Sabine's original counterpart, Tiana, is a Disney character from The Princess and the Frog, which takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana. Character Notes *Her PictYourThis handle is Sabine_Says.File:705SabineJacindaPhone.png |-|Production Notes= Production Notes *According to Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, Tiana is "a princess with a mission — to restore freedom to her people". They added "Tiana's most defining characteristic is her strength. She's been through a lot when we meet her, but she never wavers even when doubting oneself would seem to be the most logical, and safe, course of action". They also revealed that "she has her share of enemies, but that goes with the territory when one is fighting for a just cause". *According to Mekia Cox, Tiana is "a strong, loving, caring soul who wants the best for her people and is willing to fight for it." |-|Set Notes= Prop Notes *The Rollin' Bayou, a food truck run by Sabine and Jacinda, is a Morgan Olson Route Star. The license plate number is 4G7-993N.File:708ThoseLegsUnder.png Set Dressing *A figurine of a frog is sitting on the window sill in Lucy's bedroom,File:701Lucy!.png a reference to Sabine. Costume Notes *The dress Sabine is wearing during Roni's coronationFile:722ClappingForRegina2.png File:722ClappingForRegina4.png is the same dress her original persona wears during Lucy's eighth birthday celebration in "The Eighth Witch",File:710LuckyWeAre.png but with a collar. Appearances See also *Beignets *Jacinda and Sabine's Apartment *Resistance *Rollin' Bayou *Tiana's Palace References }}fr:Tiana nl:Tiana ru:Тиана Category:New Enchanted Forest Characters Category:Female Characters Category:Season Seven Characters Category:Once Upon a Time Characters